Hold back your bulldozers, Mr Nitish Kumar
April 9, 2021, 7:07 PM IST
A senior assistant editor with the Times of India, Mohammed Wajihuddin writes about Muslims, their issues, hopes and aspirations. Committed to upholding inclusiveness, communal amity and freedom to dissent and debate, he endeavours to promote peaceful existence. A passionate reader of Islam, he endeavours to save the faith from the clutches of the jihadists. An ardent lover of Urdu poetry, he believes words are the best weapons to fight jingoism. LESS... MORE
My London-based friend Shamsuddin Agha has sent me a video. In the viral video retired IPS officer Amitabh Kumar Das is seen protesting the proposed demolition of a portion of the historic Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library’s (KBL) heritage building in Patna. This is to facilitate the construction of a flyover. Das plans to petition the Patna High Court too to stop the attempt to erase part of our intellectual heritage. Several newspapers, radio and Television channels have carried people’s angst against this proposed demolition. A senior journalist-colleague in Patna tells me the government is adamant on building the flyover on that patch of the Ashok Rajpath in Patna and many institutions, including parts of Patna Medical College, Government Urdu Library and Khuda Bakhsh Library’s Curzon Reading Room, will be under axe.